MLB Power Rankings: Mets make case for top spot

Interesting New York-y conundrum this week here at the Daily News MLB Power Rankings: The Mets have the best record in baseball but looked like one of the game’s worst teams in losing to the Yankees Sunday night and the Bronx Bombers won the Subway Series.

So with that as a backdrop, where do we place the locals? After careful consultation with the scouts, sabermetricians and crusty old baseball people we keep on staff, we have a solution — the Flushing crew moves up to No. 1 and the Bronxies’ rating soars, too. Hey, 14-5 is 14-5, people.

Everybody satisfied? We didn’t think so. But as we’ve been saying, in these early weeks of the season, movement in our poll is volatile.

5. New York Yankees (11-8, last week No. 14): Can’t wait for A-Rod versus the Yankees over those home run bonuses. Sounds like a monster movie.

6. Los Angeles Dodgers (11-7, last week No. 4): Yasiel Puig is on the disabled list and we are sad.

7. Chicago Cubs (10-7, last week No. 11): OK, we’re ready for another phenom to come up from the minors.

Chris Carlson/AP

This Mike Trout kid is pretty good.

8. Houston Astros (11-8, last week No. 13): “First-place Astros.” No, we’re still not used to that. It’ll take awhile.

9. Tampa Bay Rays (11-8, last week No. 20): Hey, batters: You won’t be polishing up your batting average against Rays’ pitching. Opponents have only a .211 average against these arms.

10. Pittsburgh Pirates (11-8, last week No. 15): They start a series in Chicago this week, which is good NL Central intrigue.

11. Colorado Rockies (10-8, last week No. 10): Sunday was the 20th anniversary of the opening of Coors Field and a rainout couldn’t dampen the celebration as ex-players such as Ellis Burks and Dante Bichette returned for it. Too bad this current crop of Rockies isn’t as fun.

12. San Diego Padres (11-9, last week No. 7): They lead the majors with 14 quality starts, which seems to count for something.

14. Atlanta Braves (9-9, last week No. 6): Braves are 11th in ERA in baseball, which is why they’re as high as 14th in our rankings. You do the math.

15. Baltimore Orioles (9-10, last week No. 8): Nobody scores more runs or has more homers than the O’s. So why aren’t they better?

16. Los Angeles Angels (9-10, last week No. 21): On the same day the Dodgers sign Mike Carp to a minor-league contract, Mike Trout homers off Anthony Bass. Why aren’t these guys all playing for the Marlins?

18. Chicago White Sox (8-9, last week No. 25): Every time I saw “Ventura” referenced in that Chisox-Royals brawl, I thought of Chicago manager Robin Ventura. But except for that Nolan Ryan dustup, he’s not that kind of guy. It’s KC’s Yordano who’s more like Jesse “The Body” Ventura.

19. Arizona Diamondbacks (8-10, last week No. 12): They’re kind of a 25-man yo-yo at this point, going from 28 to 12 to 19. We’re dizzy.

20. Miami Marlins (8-11, last week No. 29): They take a five-game winning streak into their series with our No. 1 this week, so that managerial speculation should die down.